Ryan Murphy: I lived vicariously through Glee

TV writer Ryan Murphy tried to relive the childhood he never had through Glee.

The 49-year-old star created the popular musical show alongside Ian Brennan and Brad Falchuk, and it picked up dozens of awards until its final sixth series aired earlier this year (15). Following the trials and tribulations of high school students competing in a singing group, Glee proved a hit with young people all over the world. The experience will stay with Ryan forever as it gave him the chance to try and recreate his difficult younger years after coming out as a teenager.

“I was there with them (the cast) all day long, and then we’d finish work and we’d go out and have fun all night, and I guess in a weird, twisted way, I was trying to relive the childhood I never had," he explained to The Hollywood Reporter. "I thought they wanted a parent, and they didn’t. They didn’t want me to tell them what to f**king do. They didn’t want me to tell them how to treat each other or what the world was like at the end of the day.

"I wish I could go back and do that differently with a lot of those actors. Some of them I’m still very close to: Lea Michele, Chord Overstreet, Darren Criss - but there were some that didn’t work out well, and I regret that. I guess I just wish I had been able to let them figure it out for themselves.”

Ryan's friendship with Lea is evident as he's cast her in his new TV programme Scream Queens, alongside the likes of Emma Roberts and Jamie Lee Curtis. He has no trouble gathering an A-list cast for his ventures and has even managed to nab singing sensation Lady Gaga for his other small screen success, American Horror Story. The latest series, Hotel, is currently airing in the US and the musician is thrilled to be playing The Countess in Ryan's vision.

"He's a creative soul mate for me," she gushed to the publication. "I've told him things I've never told anyone, and it's because he's part of something so intimate with me and something I don't experience with 99.9 percent of the people whom I come into contact with, who meet me and don't care to ask anything about me; they just want a photograph."